The Sound Hidden In The Mist
by Guardian-Of-Cerberus
Summary: One wants revenge for his past while the other wants to forget hers. Naruto X Kin
1. Hatred Is Born

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto

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Talking : "Blah"

Thinking - _'Blah'

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As Sarutobi looks over the partially ruined village of Konoha, he thinks back to the sacrifice that his predecessor made to stop all the mindless destruction and killing of shinobi and landscape alike that the Kyuubi had caused. Thinking about the Kyuubi cause the Hokage to look towards the crib sitting on the far side of the room where the sounds of light breathing could be heard and a little chubby face with a tuff of blond hair on top wrapped in a blue baby blanket was sleeping peacefully. He knew that with all of the hatred and anger towards the Kyuubi running rampant out there that this child would never be seen as the hero that the Yondaime wanted him to be but instead as a scapegoat for all the pain and suffering the villagers have suffered. Sarutobi knew what he had to do, he must send young Naruto off to a safe location until he was able to protect himself from harm and there was no better place then with the Fire Daimyo.

The Hokage scribbled out a quick note before going over to his vault and removing one of his many priceless treasures to include in the scroll as a way of saying thanks for taking Naruto in. As soon as Sarutobi was done he summoned one of his most loyal ANBU guards to undertake this mission and within seconds a man with a bear mask appeared in the office

"I need you to escort this child to the home of the Fire Daimyo as fast as you can and of course this will be considered a class-A mission with pay to match"

"Pardon me for asking Hokage sir but what makes this child so special, there are many other civilian orphans after the attack but you do not grant them the same treatment as this child?"

"This child is called Naruto and he is special because he holds the Kyuubi No Kitsune inside of his stomach"

Sarutobi could not see it but behind the bear mask the ANBU face twisted itself into a scowl as his eyes became fixed on the little blond child lying in the crib and his arm began to reach for a kunai. He quickly snapped back to his senses and knew that he could not harm the child in front of the Hokage but as soon as he was out of the city it was all fair game and he would make the Kyuubi pay for all the comrades he lost in the battle. He watched as the Hokage made the final preparations for the child's trip and after everything had been sealed into a scroll with a final goodbye to Naruto the ANBU was off headed towards the gate.

After a quick nod to the guards at the gate, the ANBU was out of Konoha and headed into the dense forest that surrounds it looking for the perfect spot to end the wretched beast's life once and for all. Once he was far enough away from the village, he landed on the side of a rarely used wagon path and placed Naruto on the ground as he unfurled the scroll that the Hokage had given him for the child. As the ANBU searched through the scroll, he finally found what he had been looking for, the Hokage's treasure which turned out to be a solid gold kunai which was meant for decorative purposes only but it would be a twisted irony if the Hokage's treasure ended Naruto's life.

Just as the ANBU was about to bring the kunai down onto Naruto's head, a rustle came from behind him and with the swiftness that years of training had granted him, he dashed up into the tree tops. Just a few seconds after, the rustling noise got louder and soon after a pudgy man with graying hair handling a horse drawn buggy came into view and the shinobi internally cursed his bad luck. The old man saw his horse come to a stop so he slid off the wagon to investigate and saw Naruto laying in the middle of the road still asleep. The old man looked around and after not seeing anyone bent down to pick up Naruto

"Hello there little one, my name is Takaige, do you know how to speak yet?"

Naruto just looked up into Takaige's green eyes and continued to giggle and babble as Takaige bent over to pick up the scroll lying beside the child and it read

_This is Naruto, he is a very precious person to me and if you could find it in your heart to look after him, I would be happy, I will thank you now for we may never meet face to face and I hope he grows up brave strong and loyal._

Takaige finished reading the scroll and wrapping it back before looking down at the half open eyes of Naruto who let out a yawn as his eyes fully closed and he fell asleep in the old man's arms. Takaige smiled as he laid Naruto back into the basket and placed the basket into the back of the wagon and with a crack of the reins he was off to his next location.

The ANBU knew that he had two options, he could go after the fat, old man driving the wagon and kill him along with Naruto or he could let the old man go off and he would lose his chance of ever getting his revenge. The ANBU stashed away the golden kunai and pulled a normal one from his pouch that he then aimed and threw at the slowly disappearing merchant. Just as the kunai was to make contact, the old man leaned down to pick up his dropped reins causing the weapon to skim right over harmlessly and sunk into a tree. The ANBU cursed his luck once more as the merchant disappeared completely around the bend so the ANBU headed back to Konoha before realizing that he still had five more days on his mission. He knew that the Hokage would ask questions if he returned now so the shinobi decided just to camp out and try to find a place to hock the golden kunai.

The old man and Naruto grew closer as the days passed on the way to the next destination on his list and the supplies in the scroll took care of everything that Takaige could have ever needed to look after Naruto. On one of the merchant trips that Takaige went on, he picked up a stuffed fox from another merchant and Naruto had seemed to warm up to the plush toy immediately never letting it out of his sight.

As they continued to travel, a sad thought crossed Takaige's mind, after the supplies in the scroll run out then it will be very hard to support both himself and Naruto on a measly merchant's salary. When he looked over the supplied left in the scroll, it looked like that he would have enough to finish his sales trip and make it back to the village hidden in the grass where he lived. When they would arrive home Takaige would think of what to do with Naruto but until then he decided to just enjoy the young boy's company and all the happiness he brought with it.

As the gates to the hidden village in the grass came into sight, Takaige let out a sigh of happiness as he was finally home from such a long trip and as the gates closed behind him, he turned his cart towards the middle of the city where the orphanage was located. With a heavy heart, he walked up to the matron who was watching over the other children playing in the yard and motioned for her to come over so that they could proceed to make up the paperwork for Naruto. As the paperwork was almost completed, Takaige picked up the pen to sign the last page making it official but then looked down at Naruto's deep blue eyes and smiled before placing the pen back on the desk. The matron stared up at him with a confused look on her face until she saw the smile on the old man's face and began to throw out the contract. Takaige walked out of the orphanage with Naruto on his shoulders holding onto his head by grabbing his hair as they got back into the wagon and headed for Takaige's house. Takaige knew that by making the choice to keep Naruto that he would never be material wealthy but he would always be emotionally wealthy with Naruto in his life.

As the years rolled by, Naruto began to grow and Takaige was there for every minute of the young boy's life through his first steps to his first words which ironically was sell from hearing the old man say it so many times. The two of them continued to travel around the elemental countries selling their wares at every village no matter if it was small or large because Takaige believed that you could turn a profit anywhere. When Naruto was about six, he had met a shinobi for the first time traveling through one of the hidden villages and became instantly enthralled by them and the dangerous lifestyle that they lead. Since then, Naruto had begun to ask, beg & plead for Takaige to send him to the ninja academy back in the village hidden in the grass but every time the old man shot him down saying it was to expensive. After seeing the downtrodden look on his adopted son's face, he stopped at a local market in the next town they visited and he picked up a used sword from a weapons dealer and surprised Naruto with it on the way back from their trip. Naruto pulled the sword out of it's sheath and began to inspect every inch of it and ran his finger along the edge of the blade to test it's sharpness before disappearing into the back to begin to polish it.

Over the next few weeks, Naruto began to train himself to use the sword but not having any prior training with weapons whatsoever caused him to not even realize that he may be doing it incorrectly. As they approached another town, lady luck was smiling on them for as soon as they set up shop, an injured shinobi approached them asking for medical supplies to heal himself with. After hearing that the shinobi had no money on him, Takaige refused the sale but then the shinobi's eyes settled on Naruto in the back still practicing with his sword. The shinobi told Takaige that he would train his son in the ways of the sword while he healed and Takaige looked back at Naruto then quickly agreed and handed over the med kit. As the shinobi began to heal, he showed Naruto the different training katas that are the basic steps to swordsmanship and told him to him to practice every chance he got until he could do at least a hundred of each without tiring. When Naruto asked about getting the shinobi to teach him a style, the shinobi got a serious look on his face and replied that every style is unique to the swordsman so there is no point in teaching a style for what may work for one will not work for another. Soon after, the shinobi was healed enough to make it back to his village to receive proper treatment from a medic-nin and Naruto continued to follow the training the shinobi had given him.

After about six months of going through the training katas, Naruto had become proficient enough to do a hundred of each consecutively without tiring so he began to think of what would be the best type of sword style for him. He knew that he had lots of stamina and was very flexible so he would base his moves around that trying to make himself flow like a river always bending and moving but never stopping. Naruto slowly began to work trying to figure out what stance he felt comfortable in and which he could add to part of his style all the while still helping out Takaige selling his wares.

When Naruto was seven, his entire life changed around him and it started with a simple routine market trip to the Village hidden in the Mist to unload some more of Takaige's products. Takaige was happy at the end of the day for they had completely sold out of all of their stuff and made enough money to cover the bills and expenses along with having a little bit left over. They had just left the village and began on their trek back to the Village hidden in the Grass and when they were about half a days travel away from Rain, bandits led by a missing-nin ambushed them.

Takaige was overcome quickly and Naruto saw him vainly try to protect himself from the missing-nin while Naruto dealt with the bandits and saw the missing-nin's sword impale Takaige's chest and come out the other side. Naruto stopped fighting the bandits and ran over to where Takaige lay in a pool of his own blood and did not even sense the missing-nin approach him from behind and stab him through the chest while the bandits took the money from the wagon. The last sight that Naruto saw before the darkness consumed him was a Konoha headband with a long scratch going right through the symbol.

As Naruto awoke, his body ached and he was covered in blood before remembering what happened and looked down to meet the clouded eyes of his father Takaige staring back up at him dead to the world. He cried over the lost of his father, friend and mentor and slowly picked himself up with his body protesting all the way and began to slowly limp back to Rain dragging his sword behind him. Only one thought crossed his mind the entire trip back

'_I will have my revenge Konoha'_

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(A/N) :

- This is the start of my second story and I hope that everyone likes it as much as my first and as always, critism is always welcome but haters are not.


	2. Rivalries & Revenge

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto

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Talking : "Blah"

Thinking : _'Blah'

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As Naruto slowly limped into the village, he could feel the wound in his chest slowly healing now that the blood flow had stopped and as he removed his shirt, he saw the pink skin slowly turning light beige to match the rest of his skin. Although the wound was gone, the pain still remained as he looked for a place to sleep for the night so his body may get back to full health. His answer came in the form of a big cardboard box laying in an alley off of the main street which he turned around so the entrance was no longer facing the street before climbing in and taking off his jacket to create a makeshift pillow for the night.

He woke to the sound of dripping water and the feel of something lightly tapping against his head and opened his eyes to see that the top of the box had started to collapse in on itself due to the rain during the night. Naruto hastily exited his temporary housing before he got soaked but as he got out, he noticed that the rain had not stopped so he ran for one of the awnings that hung over a nearby store. As soon as he was sure he would be relatively dry under there, he began to run a self-check on himself to see how the injury from yesterday was doing and to see if he felt any pain. After making sure that he was back at full health, he started to hear a rumbling noise coming from close by and realized that it was his stomach needing some food he went in search for breakfast. When he checked his pockets, he found that his wallet was gone and along with it was any chance of getting a meal legally so he went in search of an open market to do a quick snatch and grab without getting caught. As he walked through the village, he passed a man standing on a street corner handing out flyers to anyone who passed and when Naruto walked by, the man's eyes light up as he ran over to Naruto. The man shoved one of his flyers into Naruto's hands as he began to speak

"Hey kid, how good are you with that sword? Actually it doesn't matter, welcome to the Hidden Village of the Mist shinobi academy, they will pay for your attending so hurry up, the introductory classes start in a few hours so make sure to be there on time."

"Really...wait…why?"

"Well, we are still trying to recoup our loses from an…incident that happened at the academy almost decade ago where the graduating class got wiped out and the Mizukage wants to recruit as many people as possible to help before the civil war breaks out."

"Civil war!"

"Well, a group of seven idiots believe that they are better then our Mizukage and want to take over but don't ask anymore questions but when you get to the academy, be quiet and do whatever you sensei tells you to do and you will be fine."

Naruto looked at the back of the man as he ran off down the street in search of more people and then looked down at the flyer before hearing his stomach tumble again in hunger. He knew if he went, he would get money and money meant food and food meant no more stomach pains so he looked down at the directions on the map and headed towards the center of the village.

As Naruto entered through the big steel doors at the front of the academy, he saw people of all shapes and sizes and ages ranging from his age to old men who looked like they were on the last stretch of life standing and sitting all around the room. He found a seat in the back of the room away from everyone else so that he would not draw attention to himself but as soon as he sat down, another child with a black cloth covering his head and wearing a red robe came walking over to him. As the kid walked over, the sneer on his face started to deepen

"Listen and listen well kludge, I am going to be the best in this class and if anyone gets in my way, I will get my father to have them removed if you get my meaning so stay out of my way!"

Naruto did not know this kid and after hearing his little speech, he did not want to know him but before he could open his mouth for a retort, another child with striking bright blue hair and black shirt and pants with a gauntlet on each arm walked over.

"Hey Kamiri, why don't you stop bugging us regular kids like us and go back to kissing your daddy's ass"

Kamiri's scowl deepened even more before letting out a huff of air and walking away with the red robe billowing behind him as the blue haired child sat down in the seat beside Naruto. The child flashed a smile at Naruto before sticking out a gauntlet covered hand for him to shake which Naruto lightly grasped before the other child almost pulled his arm out of his socket while shaking it.

"Hi, my name is Taima, sorry about before but it looked like you needed a little bit of help against the local town asshole"

"Hi, I am Naruto and I didn't need help but I am not sorry that you managed to get rid of that kid, what is a kludge anyway?"

"It's the rich person way of saying scum and since Kamiri is the son of a noble with connections to the Mizukage, he thinks that he can rule this entire village so I spend a few minutes each day taking the wind out of his sails"

Naruto let out a little laugh and the two of them began to talk about what they wanted to get out of the academy and Taima was saddened to hear about what had happened to Naruto surrogate father but by the time the class sensei walked in, both of them knew that they had found a friend.

When the sensei of the class walked in, Naruto instantly knew that this was a man who had seen many battles and had killed many more people, he was clean shaven on his chin and scalp with an eye patch over his left eye and a long scar running down under the eye patch all the way down to his mouth. He had a grim look on his face as he turned towards the class and started to speak

"My name is Gemah but you will call my sensei, I was the commander for the Mizukage's personal guard but I have been asked to take time off to train you maggots and turn you in to full fledged shinobi. By the time this class is done, some of you will be hurt and some of you will even be dead and if that thought disturbs you then you can walk right out the steel doors and go back to being nobodies, do I make myself clear?"

"YES SENSEI!"

The class shouted as Gemah began to walk them through the basics of shinobi training by taking them outside to test all of them in every aspect of the field such as strength, weapon throwing, speed and stamina. Naruto had no prior training in weapons or taijutsu so he failed at those tests but then Gemah took them over to the track that was behind the school and told them to run twenty laps, Naruto knew that this was his time to impress his sensei. He started to sprint while the rest of the class began in a slow jog and they all laughed at him for they thought he was going to tire out early and not be able to finish but as he crossed the line for his twentieth lap not even winded, the laughter from the class who were still on their tenth to twelfth lap stopped. Gemah just looked at Naruto standing of to the side then back down to his time watch and a smile graced his battle scarred face as he walked over to Naruto. He clapped a hand down on Naruto's shoulder and Naruto looked up at him with a small smile of his own

"Way to go maggot, you have more stamina then the rest of these other maggots combined, you may be lacking in other areas but those can be improved, it looks like you have the making of a great shinobi one day"

Naruto's small smile turned into a full blown one upon hearing this and he began to jump around doing a small dance but something inside of him to him to stop before he even began which Naruto complied to and sat back down on the bench. As the rest of the class finally made it around their last lap, they all collapsed to their knees trying to catch their breath but Gemah would not allow it around quickly ushered them off to the to the final testing area, the dojo. As they entered the dojo, everyone sat on the outer ring of the mat, as Gemah stood in the middle and made everyone in the room be silent before addressing all of them

"This is the final test for all of you, some of you will die here and the ones that walk away winners will be welcomed into the Village Hidden in The Rain shinobi academy and if any of you are not comfortable with this then like before, there is the door"

"But sensei, didn't we already test our taijutsu?"

"Yes you did but this is not just about taijutsu, this is full fledged combat with another human being where anything goes as long as it means that you come out on top at the end of it, now I will be calling out pairs and the two will fight until one is unable to continue or dead, now first pair is Taima versus Honan, begin"

Taima got to his feet and strapped his steel gauntlets back onto his forearms before stepping into the ring where his opponent was a kid who looked like he had just his puberty with acne growing his face. The two opponents bowed to each other before jumping back to the edge of the mat to feel each other out before striking and Honan charged first with a sloppy form of taijutsu. Taima blocked the first blow by using his gauntlet as a guard and was on the defensive as the older teen kept throwing punch after punch and each one being blocked. Honan finally saw an opening as he managed to get a grip on Taima's gauntlets that left his mid-section wide open and Honan kicked him hard causing the air in Taima's lungs to leave and send him skidding back towards the edge.

As he got his breath back, he decided to go on the offensive instead of the defensive and charged at Honan with his gauntlets in front and began to barrage him with punches which few were blocked but most of them got through. Taima put most of his strength behind a haymaker aimed for Honan's head and a smile graced his face as he heard the crunch of broken bone. Honan fell to the ground clutching his nose as blood poured out of it like a faucet and Taima pulled back his right fist for the final blow but was stopped as Gemah took hold of his arm before he could throw the punch.

"Good fight you two, Taima you show some talent for taijutsu but you have absolutely no style do that is something to work on and Honan, you fight well but at this academy we only accept winners so come back next month when the next class starts, now onto the next fight"

Naruto sat by and watched each match start and finish with some of them ending with the two opponents both walking away and other getting carried out on a stretcher and he was slowly growing more nervous with each name called waiting for his own to be announced as the number of opponents dwindled. Naruto looked up and caught the gaze of Gemah who smiled at him before speaking once again

"We are getting down to the last few of our contestants so we should be done soon so the next fight is Naruto verses Kamiri"

Naruto got to his feet and walked into the middle of the ring and watched as Kamiri took to his feet and unclasped his robe to reveal the large broadsword that was strapped to his back. Naruto withdrew his katana and went into one of the basic katas that was taught to him as Kamiri pulled the broadsword off of his back and out of it's sheath before going into a basic stance. They both waited for the signal and as Gemah dropped his hand down, Kamiri charged at Naruto with sword in both hands and swung wide as Naruto quickly jumped back to avoid it.

As Naruto landed, he realized that due to the speed of the charge and the sloppiness of the swing that Kamiri must only wear the sword for show and have actually very little training in the art of kenjutsu. He was broken from his thoughts as he raised his katana above his head to black Kamiri's broadsword and with a push up caused Kamiri to be knocked backwards onto his ass. As he slowly got back to his feet, Naruto took this opportunity and charged with a downward swing causing Kamiri to abandon his weapon in exchange for his life as he rolled to the right to avoid Naruto's swing. Kamiri got to his feet just in time to watch Naruto turn on his right foot and bring his katana in an upward slash and felt a warm liquid substance splash on his face. He looked over to his right arm to see where he was struck only to find it laying on the floor in front of him and blood squirting out of the stub where it once was. Kamiri let out a cry of pain and anguish as he looked at Naruto with pure rage in his eyes and with his one good arm, he charged towards Naruto with kunai in hand before being stopped by Gemah and a medic team. As Kamiri was being lead off the mat, he turned around and faced Naruto

"Listen to me you bastard of a street whore, no one but no one harms me and gets away scot-free, I will have my revenge one day and until then you best always be looking over your shoulder and sleeping with one eye open"

Naruto still in shock from the blood covering his face nodded his head as Gemah led him off the mat and back onto the floor beside Taima who gave him a pat on the back but all Naruto could think about was the blood and how much he enjoyed spilling it.

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(A/N) :

- I thank you for your reviews on my frist chapter and as always, critism is always welcome so until next time, keep reading and reviewing.


	3. To All My Fans

To all my fans and reviewers out there, I am finally FREE!!!

After being trapped in a hospital in whistler for three weeks due to a broken leg, bruised ribs and complications which they would not tell me about, I am now in a walking cast with crutches but I don't care because I am home and on sick leave from work, which my boss just loves me for.

So I shall be adding new chapters very soon since I could not access a computer inside the hospital due to the rules and regulations so expect to see update pretty soon.

And thank you to all the reviewers out there that pointed out my village name mistake, it has been corrected and will not happen again.


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